5 Tips For Effective Career Planning

We’re more than halfway into February, but the year’s still pretty new, so I hope you’re all still sticking to your 2016 resolutions!

When we talked about resolutions not too long ago, a lot of you shared that 2016 was going to be the year you totally ROCKED your careers! But in order to do that, you gotta have a solid plan, right? Yep, absolutely!

So today, my friend Andy’s chiming in on this topic, and he’s sharing 5 tips for effective career planning. Enjoy!

Contrary to popular belief, career planning isn’t something that you forget about once you leave college. Today, especially when people are changing their careers multiple times, career planning has become extremely important, and it should be seen as an ongoing process where you’re constantly considering things like your interests, values, skills, likes and dislikes. You really have to know yourself inside out before making decisions about your career, so here are a few tips that’ll help make your career planning as effective as possible.

Focus on Career Plans Least Annually

Make it a point to focus on your career plans every twelve months. Just like we visit the doctor annually, career planning should be undertaken on at least a yearly basis. Pick a day once a year, and block out all distractions so you can really focus. Make it a point to ask yourself important questions like, “Are you happy in your present career?”, “Where do you want to see yourself in the next 5 years?” etc. etc. etc.

Figure Out What You Like and Don’t Like

Think about your likes and dislikes since it’s inevitable that some of them will change over time. If you’re a little confused, consult a career counselor. Jot down your likes and dislikes and if your current job is full of dislikes, you know what you ought to do.

Have Clear Goals

Having clear goals is important for career planning. Say you have a startup and you plan to expand in the next five years. If that’s the case, work on it step by step, and reward yourself when you achieve any part of that goal.

Explore Other Career Options

Broaden your horizons and explore other career options whether or not they’re related to your field.Maybe you’re a physics major with a healthy interest in theatre. Rather than giving up on your interests,reach out to someone who’s experienced enough in the field you want to pursue. Discuss ideas with them, and get to know about their professional journey so youknow what mistakes to avoid and which advice you should follow.

Network, Network, Network.

Networking is vital for any career, so communicate with everyone you can. You never know when a particular conact might come in handy. Go to events where you can network with employers/employees and potential business partners, attend business conferences, and make sure you’ve got a LinkedIn profile setup where you can build professional contacts.

Any other advice? How do you make your own career planning effective?

Andy Bell is an everyday learner and editor, working at Tutoring help. He is passionate about helping online learning businesses achieve their goals. He loves tutoring,& while his favorite subjects are math and English, he has also taken honors classes in science and history. Outside the classroom, he enjoys tennis and is an active member of the Rancho Crandon Park.

9 Comments

I love that you mentioned exploring other options. For the longest time, I focused only on Public Relations and Social Media. Then, once I realized it is a lot more difficult to get into those very narrow choices, I decided to look at opportunities in event planning, marketing, etc. Networking, along with looking into new options, definitely helps! Great tips!

Thanks for the great post, Kayla and Andy! I love the tip for us to contact and work with career counselors – I think that’s an area where we can glean a ton of great information, but I think most of us aren’t utilizing that!
I’ve run into several Millennials that aren’t sure about what they want to do – they seem to drift from one thing to the next, always getting tired of the latest job and searching for something new. What’s your advice for this problem cycle??

Samantha

Thank you for this advice! Although I’m still in the process of looking for a job, it is great to plan ahead for when I do land that dream position. I like that Andy suggests reviewing career plans annually. You never know when you’ll want to pick up and move careers, especially as young professionals and millennials, we love to find new careers for ourselves if we’re unsatisfied with a current one. I also appreciate that you chose to include networking. I believe that networking is an amazing way to meet new people who are going to push you and help you in a career.